Twisted Firestarter.

Had a busy couple of days. On Monday I went down to London for Immi’s Bush Hall gig – arrived at the venue about 4pm after Chloe cancelled lunch cause she didn’t get out of bed in time – lazy student! (Only joking Clo ;-)). When I got there Immi was already there along with Kumar, Ingmar and Matt of Fruit Pie fame – all very nice gentlemen I have had the pleasure of spending many hours on tour buses and at gigs with, so it was nice to catch up with them. A whole host of other people from the London crowd that I only ever see when I go down there showed up too, so it was extra-nice to see them all. Hung out with Mr Mills of The Lucky Nine and assorted other people….always good to catch up with friends you don’t see very often.

As I was there and had my hands free I ended up being trusted with the job of ‘candle technician’ (or ‘twisted firestarter’ as I preffered to call myself) and was left in charge of placing and lighting candles on stage for Imogen’s set. Now, being the highly experienced and fire-safety minded professional that I am – I had no problems doing this, I knew all about the health & safety laws and everything. Honest. I said beforehand I’d happily do this, but wouldn’t take responsibility if the venue burnt down mid-gig! I knew where the fire extinguisher and nearest fire exit was though, so everything was under control.

Luckily all the candles I’d melted/stuck onto cdrs and placed on various flight cases around the stage survived the show without falling over and setting fire to anything, or melting hot wax onto any important equipment! Looking at a few photos from the show afterwards the candles looked pretty ace too – so top marks to whoever came up with that idea, even if it was me that implemented it and ended up with hot wax all over my hands and clothes! The photo above is a shot someone in the audience snapped of me ‘tech-ing’ the candles during change-over…my friend’s like to call me ‘Doug The Roadie’ – my gig alter-ego.

The show was brilliant – with Immi switching between a grand piano on the floor in front of the stage and he full-on high-tech space-age set up on the stage. She played a mixture of songs spanning her entire career, which seemed to go down well with the crowd who she had in the palm of her hand from the second she took to the stage. I’ve never been to a gig where EVERYONE was absolutely silent for the duration of every single song – no chatting at the back, or clinking of glasses throughout, just silence – it was very special! The crowd were also like-minded enough that when Immi suggested the first few rows sit while she played the piano (so those at the back could see) that they ALL sat down – all 400 people sat and watched her playing the big old grand piano. I can’t wait for the next London show at The Scala on Feb 7th – it’s another great venue, very different to Bush Hall and I think the whole set up for the show will be different, but it’ll be just as good I’m sure!

After leaving Bush Hall I got a lift over to Saint Paul’s Cathedral where I met up with my good friend Jo. She was staying in a hotel right by the Cathedral while she was working in London, so I had a place to stay and got to see her too which was most pleasant! When I awoke on Tuesday morning I realised I was very near Fleet Street and thus very near ‘The Temple Church’ that I’d been reading about in ‘The Da Vinci Code’ the day before, so I whipped out my A-Z of London and set off in search of the Church (nice rhyme there!). I found the Church/Temple via Starbucks and a Vanilla latte (Mmmmmm) and took some photos while looking around the outside of the building. Unfortunately the Church isn’t open to visitors on Mondays & Tuesdays so I wasn’t able to go inside, but it was still cool to visit somewhere I’d just read about in a fictional book!

Shortly after I jumped on the tube to Euston and got on the train back to Brum. I’d had the worse night’s sleep I’d had for ages for some reason, so I’m still feeling warn out now….think I’m going to go and watch a documentary about Churchill’s bodyguard and then go to bed.

Oh – I posted photos of my adventure on my moblog, check ‘em out…